Gun shot wounds and fragmentation from explosive devices (IED) to the femur artery of the human body cause death in most cases. Body armor has existed for many years, but body armor for wearing over clothing to protect the lower portion of the body has not been developed.
Often law enforcement officers that conduct raids are required to leave their desk at a moments notice by their superior to go perform a raid. These law enforcement officers normally do not wear bullet proof garments when at their desks performing other tasks. These officers must be able to put on quickly bullet proof garments in order to protect themselves when conducting the raid. Further, military personnel during their normal tour of duty in hostile areas can choose to wear outer garment ballistic protection for the lower body. Thousands of soldiers have been wounded, killed, or lost lower limbs in battlefields because of hits to their unprotected lower body.
Vascular injuries to the lower abdomen and lower extremities carry a high mortality rate. In a study at Ben Tub Hospital of Houston, Tex. of 600 patients with penetrating trauma to the iliac vessels and femoral arteries, 39% of the patients died within 30 days of injury. In certain cases of penetrating trauma to the iliac vessels, cardiac arrest occurred within six minutes to eight minutes of impact.
A need exists for an over clothes body armor that provides protection over the femur artery, the femoral artery path, and the lower spine. The over clothes body armor should be light and flexible so that a user will wear the device. A need exists for the over clothes body armor to be adaptable to add ceramic plates or similar hard ballistic materials placed in external pockets to provide even higher levels of protection—NIJ Level IV. Additional pockets and straps should be easily added to the carrier to enable the wearer to attach equipment to the shorts for ready access: this may include Velcro straps for flashlights, canteens, ammunition pouches, etc.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.